Heather mentioned on Saturday that October is Non-GMO month and she has pledged to not eat GMOs (or processed foods) for the whole month. Good luck to you, Heather!
The Organic Consumers Association (OCA) is participating in Non-GMO month too, of course. It had a great intro to the month, that first starts with some highlights (and lowlights) of the year so far and then predicts how October is going to change things up. Also, Food & Water Watch has just released a big report on GMOs.
I wrote back in June about the fact that the USDA doesn’t follow its own dietary advice.. when it comes to food subsidies. But a new report by the US Public Interest Research Group, “Apples to Twinkies,” puts more numbers to that. Here are some key ones:
I’ve got some good news for all those who care about decent treatment of animals. Farm Sanctuary is hosting its first-ever National Conference to End Factory Farming: For Health, Environment and Farm Animals this year — October 27-29 in the Washington, D.C. area. Attend if you can!
The Organic Consumers Association has a kick-a** campaign going on, Millions Against Monsanto. It is trying to get as many people as possible to campaign in the streets on October 16, 2011 for mandatory labeling of GM food and is looking to get 1 million to sign a petition pushing for this.
As Ken Roseboro wrote earlier today, Monsanto GM sweet corn is about to be much more ubiquitous in the U.S. Interestingly, this announcement comes at about the same time as the release of a new study out of Iowa State University showing that some organisms that are supposed to be repelled by this GM corn are becoming resistant to it (and passing on that resistance to their offspring).
I ran across the graphic below on my sister’s tumblr blog this weekend and, though I already knew crop species loss was pretty dramatic, found it to be pretty shocking.
I love Farm Sanctuary. It’s making the world a livable place for countless farm animals around the United States and Canada, and extending their lifespans as well.
Monsanto and India don’t have a very cozy relationship. Monsanto came in on the promise of cheaper crops, alleviating hunger, and so on and so on. India found out before long that they got totally ripped off and screwed by the agribusiness multinational giant. Thousands upon thousands upon thousands of Indian farmers have actually committed suicide in response to Monsanto’s screw-you (with a smile), give-money-to-us genetically modified (GM) crops.
The latest in this long, sad saga is that the National Biodiversity Authority of India (NBA) is suing Monsanto, Mahyco, and other collaborators who were involved in “accessing and using local brinjal varieties in developing Bt Brinjal without prior approval of the competent authorities” (aka biopiracy).
We don’t seem to get a lot of good news when it comes to GMO vs organic legislation. But the courts have been more friendly to the rights of organic farmers and consumers than government administrators and legislators in the U.S., and an appeals court in Minnesota follows that trend.
Fruit trees everywhere! Wouldn’t that be nice. Well, a bunch of people and organizations are working to make that happen. They’ve formed the Boston Tree Party, a little more productive than the modern-day Tea Party nightmare we have in Congress.